That cut – the one changed the course of the fight and left Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva drenched in blood at this past weekend’s UFC 146 event – wasn’t as bad as it looked.

“It wasn’t really a big cut,” Silva’s manager, Alex Davis, told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “It was right between the eyes. It’s a very fleshy part. It bleeds a lot. He’s a big guy, and his head is very well irrigated, so it was a blood bath.

“But it only (needed) three stitches. It wasn’t that bad, but it looked bad on TV.”

In the pay-per-view co-headliner of Saturday’s UFC 146 event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Silva (16-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) suffered a first-round TKO loss to ex-champ Cain Velasquez (10-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) . Silva fired off an early kick, but Velasquez caught it, quickly get the fight to the mat, and unloaded a barrage of punches and elbows that left Silva doused in blood.

A cageside doctor checked the cut midway through the round and allowed the fight to continue, but with the former Strikeforce fighter and promotional newcomer essentially blind from the blood moments later, Velasquez picked up the well-earned victory.

“With ‘Bigfoot,’ it just wasn’t his day,” Davis said. “He did a small booboo. He was supposed to jab before he kicked, and he kicked first, and that gave Cain what he needed to get him down immediately.”

The outcome is a big reason Davis and so many others are against elbow strikes in the UFC. Velasquez, who out-struck Silva 51-3 (according to FightMetric), no doubt was tagging Silva with some heavy shots, but the blood itself is what caused the biggest problem, Davis said.

“I’m against elbows,” he said. “That’s all they do. They do little nick cuts, which aren’t really that damaging. They’re not submissions, yhey’re not a KO, and the fight gets stopped early or gets messed up early because of a small cut. That’s one reason I don’t like elbows.”

It’s impossible to know if the fight would have gone any differently if it weren’t for the cut. But Davis thinks it would have at least given Silva a fighting chance to get out of trouble.

“‘Bigfoot’ would have survived there,” he said. “We trained that position a lot. I think that if he hadn’t been for the cut and the blood in the eyes, he could have ended up sweeping Cain. He at least would have survived, and there would have been more fight, but with the blood in his eyes, he just couldn’t see anything.

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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